Placing the Maize Goddess: Chicomecoatl and the Nahua Common Class

Dozens, if not hundreds, of Chicomecoatl (Nahua Maize Goddess) sculptures exist today in museum collections around the world; however, their archaeological context is lost due to the destruction of Spanish colonialism beginning in the sixteenth century. This paper analyzes 46 of these Chicomecoatl sculptures alongside codices, administrative documents, histories, and the writings of scholars on Nahua class, empire structure, and gender to propose the theoretical argument that the statues may have originally been located in the community spaces of the common class. The paper operates through the lens of indigenous and feminist archaeology and approaches the artifacts through a functionally reversed and contextual archaeological method. The strict labor distinction between the common (mācēhualtin) and noble (pipiltin) class, their physical separation, and differing approaches to gender roles may have generated an attraction to goddesses of sustenance in the common class that differed from the imperial worship interests of the nobility. Previous scholarship assumes that statuary capable of veneration was the sole property of the noble class, thus existing exclusively in their living/working spaces. This paper offers a new perspective on Nahua worship, community structure, and gender roles by arguing that members of the common class living in calpulli communities may have had the interest and resources to commission and worship sustenance goddess statues.